


Night of the New Moon

by Hevheia



Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [12]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, First Kiss, Siren!Quynh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28152180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia
Summary: It is said you should stay clear of the water when the new moon resides in the night sky. It is said something lures unfortunate souls into the depths with an ensnaring song. It is said they are never to be found again.Andromache never believes what is said until she has seen it with her own eyes.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952467
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. It Is Said

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: It is said (λέγεται)

It is said you should stay clear of the water when the new moon resides in the night sky. It is said something lures unfortunate souls into the depths with an ensnaring song. It is said they are never to be found again.

Andromache never believes what is said until she has seen it with her own eyes. "People say so much," she tells her friends who try to warn her for her wilfullness. "They say babies come from cauliflowers and a little man comes to pour sand in your eyes when you go to sleep."

"Careful, Andromache. Something lurks in that water. Something with an insatiable hunger."

Andromache does not listen, though she does not not listen either. At night, when the moon is but a sliver of its usual self, she opens her window. It looks out on the lake, the water tranquil below as if nothing has disturbed it in centuries. She watches it, listening carefully for a distant song. All night, silence is her only answer.

The night of the new moon, she keeps her window closed.

Or that is what she usually does at least. What she should do. But tonight is different, tonight something is pulling at her. It reminds her of the sea she has seen once. The sea that draws close and pulls back again, over and over in a neverending teasing dance.

She steps to the window. Her hand finds the cold metal of the handle.

Stop, a voice warns her, somewhere from a corner in her mind. It is said there is no resisting the monster’s call.

She opens the window.

Her breath catches in her throat as the breeze caresses her face, carrying a song in its gentle arms. A voice, calling her.

It is the most terrifying sound Andromache has ever heard. It is the loveliest sound she has ever heard.

The pull of the lake gets stronger, like a rope tied around her waist. She climbs out of the window, her heart beating in time with the song. She lands on some rocks right on the edge of the water.

She kneels and bends over the surface. There’s a face just beneath and it is so beautiful Andromache thinks she is dreaming. A monster, they said? How far from the truth they all had been.

It is the woman who is singing the enchanting melody, Andromache knows this, but her mouth does not move. Somehow, she sings it right into Andromache’s mind, into Andromache’s heart.

Andromache leans closer and closer and closer. She holds onto the twig of a willow as to not topple over.

Beneath the surface, the creature draws closer too. She looks kind, almost curious. Above all, she looks like someone to be treasured and worshipped. Someone to be loved.

In the end, it is all Andromache’s own doing. It is Andromache who lets go of the twig. It is Andromache who pushes herself forward until their lips meet. And it is Andromache who lets the creature take her away into the deep.


	2. The Woman Lives Along the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: The woman lives along the water (La donna vive lungo l’acqua)

Quynh chooses her victims carefully. She chooses them to protect others. She chooses them to take her revenge.

See, there was once a time when there were others like her. But then humans found the lake and hunted them down until there was no one left. Or so they thought. Quynh hid and waited for them to forget about her and her kind, waited as the anger solidified inside her like steaming water turning to ice. Then when the moon stood high in the sky, a new moon that didn’t cancel out her song, she lured them in. One by one.

Really, she was just returning the favor.

She took abusers, thieves, enslavers. People with poisoned hearts. There were many of them among human kind.

She used to believe there were no others among them. Until she caught sight of _her_.

The woman lives along the water. All on her own. Most of the humans had been clever enough to move away from the direct closeness of the water, but not her.

Quynh watched her when she stared out of her window. She was intrigued by the colors surrounding her, fiercer than she’d ever seen before. Alive and whirling and so incredibly bright. The colors of a brave heart, a curious heart, a kind heart.

She watched her for two years, and noticed a new color joining the dance. The color of a longing heart.

It might as well have been the color of her own.

The next new moon, she sings for her. A kinder melody than she has ever sung before. The woman listens and suddenly she’s looking right at Quynh through the thin water surface. Quynh loses herself in the woman’s eyes, eyes the color of the water like it used to be when there had been more of her kind.

She is surprised when the woman closes the distance and their lips meet. On impulse, she returns the kiss as they sink deeper and deeper into the lake. She smiles against the woman’s lips, her heart pounding like it has never done before.

It is only when the woman goes slack in her arms that she realises what is happening. Her eyes widen and she swims to the surface as fast as she can with powerful strokes of her tail. She hauls the woman back on the shore and leans over her to see if she’s still breathing.

_Not her, not her, not her._

A crushing grief dawns in her, grief for this woman she doesn’t even know yet she feels like she has known all her life. She wants to rip her skin and scales apart.

But then, a sharp intake of breath followed by a gurgling cough. Quynh smiles and laughs in relief, wiping the tears from her eyes.

When the coughing has subsided, the woman looks at her as if she’s a ghost, an apparition, a dream come true.

“What is your name?” Quynh asks.

“Andromache, and you?”

“Quynh.”

A tender smile appears around Andromache’s lips. She says, “Quynh, I think my heart has been waiting for you.”


End file.
